CHAPTER II.
SUCCESS ABSTRACTEDLY CONSIDERED AFFORDS NO CRITERION OF A DIVINE ORIGINAL: CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAMISM CONTRASTED: THE SUCCESS OF THE FORMER SHEWN TO BE MIRACULOUS, THAT OF THE LATTER ACCOUNTED FOR ON ORDINARY PRINCIPLES, WAS CONSONANT WITH PROPHECY, AND WILL ULTIMATELY PROVE BENEFICIAL TO TRUTH.
There is something more imposing than substantial in a series of successful enterprises, the imagination is led captive and the judgment too often biassed, so that there is danger of losing sight of the merits of a cause, through impressions created by adventitious circumstances. History and experience, however, concur in establishing the fact, that talents and events, suitably directed and improved by individuals or states, will, in the
